Many of today's products sold in liquid form, such as liquid hand soap, are contained in disposable containers or reservoirs which incorporate a pump assembly. Typically, the pump assembly includes a reciprocally movable element which when moved dispenses a quantity of liquid soap from the reservoir. The reservoirs are generally fitted within a permanent housing which includes a movable actuator assembly which engages and reciprocally moves the movable element to dispense the fluid. This has been found to be both a convenient and economical means of fluid supply and dispensation. Since the fluid reservoirs are replaced once the fluid supply is exhausted, it is desirable to manufacture the dispenser and reservoir so as to make replacement of the fluid reservoir as easy and quick as possible.
Known fluid dispensers suffer the disadvantage in ensuring the movable element is placed and maintained in a correct dispensing position relative the actuator assembly to properly dispense fluids. To achieve the proper dispensing configuration, the pump assembly must therefore be precisely aligned in the housing to ensure it is properly secured in or coupled to the actuator assembly. In some fluid dispensers, a disadvantage arises that after initial coupling of the movable element with the actuator assembly, the moveable element can with use come to be displaced out of proper alignment, for example, radially relative an axis about which the movable element is reciprocally movable.
Known fluid dispensers suffer the disadvantage that the coupling mechanism for coupling of the movable element and the actuator assembly permits movable elements having a wide variety of physical shapes and sizes to be coupled to the actuator assembly, and thus do not provide a keying or lock out arrangement for limiting replacement reservoirs which can be coupled to the housing to those with movable elements of limited particular shapes and sizes.